G's-Spot

Happy Halloween!

Jessica & Luke's Wedding

 

The wedding was great--and so much fun!  It really was all Jessica and Luke in their personalities and you could see by looking around how much time and effort they'd put into making one kick-ass party.  If I were to do a Halloween wedding, it would be just like that.  Nothing was traditional, nothing was little girl princess wedding, everything was tongue in cheek and all fun.

Here are some pics from the wedding which was performed under a trellis draped in black and purple flowers, gargoyles to each side, and standing in front of a beautiful dead tree silhouetted against the sunset out on Lucas' parents' farm in Richland.  Can't beat that!

Don from the sleep lab (minister) and Lucas.

Three of us from work were there.  Ashley, dressed as a vamp, whom we kept telling her she had to be "the whitest Diana Ross on the planet"... She was great--perfect costume!

And Danielle as a nun.  It's okay. You can laugh at that one. God knows we did.  It was great to see her.  I don't know her well since she went to Lebanon before I went to nights but I loved being around her when I was, and last night was no exception. Danielle is really funny and down to earth.

I was dressed as nothing really. Originally I was going to be Lily Munster but I'd worked the night before and was too tired to deal with the makeup and wig when I got up so I just had on a long purple velvet goth dress and goth jewelry.  Gene had on a sweatshirt with a cartoon of a row of ghosts, one small and wrinkled, that said "Why ghosts hate 100% cotton--how embarrassing."

We all loved the hay bales for the seating and the tombstones at the end of the rows.  It was very fun and pretty.  Jessica did the offical bride walk just as the sun sat and turned the sky rosy.

Isn't she beautiful?

The wedding ceremony was followed with music and fireworks. Here's Jessica dancing as the fireworks went off:

And the happy couple:

Here's a couple of shots of the reception set up in the pole barn. It looks so fun! I admit we left right after the wedding. It had been such a long week for me what with ACLS, making Jessica's cake, the cakes for work for respiratory week, etc., that by the time the wedding ceremony was over I was done.  I just cumpled with exhaustion.  Gene drove me home (the wedding was in Richland) and I was in bed by 10pm, not to rise until noon today.  Wimpy, I know, but the reception area did look very fun!

Gene and I were teasing that this is probably the honeymoon suite out back:

And finally, here's the cake I made for them. Loved the cake table with the Batman back up cake (Lucas is heavily into comics) and the skull punch bowl...fantastic!

For more pics of the step by step on the cake and more stories, click here WEDDING.

ACLS Certified

Okay, that was grueling but we all passed and lived to tell the tale...over a couple of happy hour libations.  That was one of the most stressful things I've done since the hands on clinical finals in respiratory school.  We were divided into groups across the spectrum.  My group had two RT's, a float nurse, a floor nurse, an ER nurse, and a clinic records person in it.  It was nice to make new friends who'll be bound together forever from fear. 

For the uninitiated, ACLS is Adult Cardiovascular Life Support, meaning, running a code situation.  The testing part consists of both a written test and a hands on live mega code, meaning responses to several cardiac rhythms, walk-through.

Thank God McDoogal and Sooner Fan drilled those rhythms and drugs into our heads. Thanks again, guys.

Well Muck Fe, I am so Screwed.

Nothing like being a little cocky about ACLS (adult cardiovascular life support--running a code if a doc or ICU nurse isn't there) certification.  I had the prep course...uh....six months ago so there shouldn't be a problem, right?  I've been looking over the material.  Defined, that means I've been sitting with the book in my lap while I've watched TV the last couple of nights. Hmmm...so.... I went to take the test today from the CD that I have to pass by 90% and print out out to prove it to take to class tomorrow morning showing that I have looked over these EKG rhythms, algorithms, and meds.  Yeah, well, looks like my butt's going to be planted in this chair for the afternoon and as soon as I quit screwing around I need to actually start going over the information again.  You know, since I passed the test by 65% instead of 80%.  Did great on the rhythms...uhhh...not so hot on the pharmaceuticals and algorithms...hmmm... something tells me I need to get my shit together and in a hurry, especially since I really want to watch Dexter tonight and be in bed by midnight.  Hey, no pressure there. I love a deadline.

The Glory of Sleep

You know, I cannot believe I resisted going to nights for so long. I'm looking back and smacking myself. I thought that because I've been an insomniac for years who wakes up in the wee hours that I would be perfectly miserable but the opposite is proving true.  Now, instead of fighting with myself to get more than four hours of sleep at a time, I work nights, don't have  a problem staying up, and generally run until I'm ragged and then sleep the sleep of the just. It's fantastic. I've slept more in the last few days than I have in the last few months.  It's been great. I feel so good right now. 

I'm also all but vegetarian now and that feels good too. No meat/lots of sleep, for me, have equalled losing weight consistently for the first time in years.  Weird, huh?  I've never been much of a meat eater but I read this book called "Skinny Bitch" and now I can't stand the thought of eating meat, eggs by themselves, or drinking milk, although I will eat a little butter, cheese, and eggs in recipes.  I also did eat a little shellfish at sushi the other night.  But in general I have no desire whatsoever to eat meat. The weird thing is that book didn't have any information that I didn't already know about the meat-packing industries and factory farms but something about either the way it was presented or something in my brain just clicked to where meat simply grosses me out.  But that's okay. I've been eating brown rice and beans, quinoa and veggies, potatoes, whole wheat bread, and tons of avocados.  There's plenty of the essential amino acids and omega-3 acids to be found in all of those.

I think this is the best I've felt in years.

No, seriously. What does fever have to do with reactive airways?

Found out the hard way last night that there's a new post-op fever protocol that says that any time a patient has a fever, respiratory is to come re-assess and treat?  Uhhhh...okay. Hey, I don't mind looking and relooking at patients but I don't get that one, just like I don't get the phone calls from RN's saying the patient "has a fever so you have to come give a breathing treatment" or "the patient has a fever so I've been making him do his SMI more".  What?  Seriously.  I don't get it.

Little Trip to The Landing last week

So when my friends from St. Louis:  Dianne, Missy, Linda, and Carol, and my friend from Woonsocket: Cindy were in town last week we took off and went down to the The Landing in Branson.  I really like that place. It's different but the same. A mall's a mall but I like the way it's outdoors and the shops are better than I thought they would be. When they first proposed the landing, Gene and I snickered that there wouldn't be any different shops than any other mall so what was the point?  Well, it is true. The stores are all the same old thing...if you live in a big city. I'm not wake enough to name names but it was fun.

While we were there I did a little Christmas shopping for the kids in the 5 & 10 store. And no Jordan I'm not going to show anything I bought for you because I know you read this blog once in a while.  I got purses with stuffed animals for Kaylee and Sydney and a THREE FOOT gummi snake for Isaac.  Oh yeah, who's your Auntie?  Huh? Huh? Huh?

Okay, the red makeup bag is a little pre-Christmas for moi.  I've had the same makeup case for 20 years and it's time to retire The Caboodle. Anyone else remember, have, or owned one at one time?

We also sat in the main park place of the mall and watched the water show that wasn't horrible.

Here's Cindy avoiding the camera while Missy laughs her ass off and Dianne looks...sort of malevolent which is hilarious since Dianne is the sweetest person I know.

The best shopping part of the trip for us was the Amish Country Store, one of my favorite places to be. See the food blog for my haul in that place.  Very fun.  I haven't shopped AT ALL for a while and that was way fun.  Amazingly, I only dropped $40. I think that's due more to their good deals than my restraint but whatever works.  Dianne and Missy both bought knives.  I pledged to drive carefully and not piss anyone off after my guests started buying cutlery.

That's my excitement for the week.  I go back to work tonight. For the first time since going to nights I actually have to work two in a row so tomorrow I'll find out what that this eating, sleeping, eating, getting dressed to work again thing is all about. Wish me luck.  This will be the true test of whether night shift and I will be cozy or not.

Night Shift

You know what I love most about working nights?  I mean, besides the fact that everyone's really fun and we all get the giggles about 4am?

You can wean people on the vents and CPAP valves without having to fight the head issues.  They're asleep so as you wean you're ONLY having to deal with their physiologic issues. It's easier to see what's really going on with them.  Much easier.

A Night of Masks

CPAP masks, that is. First there was the guy who had me change mask styles three times. Sigh.  And just when I thought I had him settled in for the night got a call to a room with a loaner unit where the guy complained that he didn't like our machine.  Fair enough. 

I said "Sir, you do know that if someone from your family brings in your own unit we'll be happy to help you set it up, right?" 

"Oh yeah," he said. "It's in the duffle bag on the floor."

Okay.

I pull the whole thing out and spend 10 minutes setting it up.

As I finish the man says "Oh, my mask is broken.  It won't hold any pressure. Has been for a long time. Can I use your mask?"

"Of course.  These are disposable to us. You can take it home if you like."

"Okay." He said.  "Can you switch that out for me?"

"Of course. No problem."

I fiddled with his mask and felt like a wimp because I could get the mask of the hose.  Hmmm... Looked a little closer and there was a ring of what looked like--

"Sir, did you super glue your mask to the hose?"

"Oh yeah.  You can cut if off, right?"

Oy.

But before I could finish dealing with that guy, the RN for the first guy paged me to tell me that first guy had already broken, as in ripped into two pieces that couldn't be put back together, the final mask that he'd liked "okay".

Welcome to Nights.

Why Did I Avoid this For So Long?

I'm going to work tonight.  Let me rephrase that: I'm going to work toNIGHT.  I've officially gone to nights. This will be my third.  I've dreaded this since the beginning. I stayed on days until the pulled me off whining and crying all the way. I stayed on evenings for a year. I loved the hours but not the number of days I had to work. In a regular job, five days a week feels right. In my job where I put 6-8 miles on my bad knees per shift, five days a week is torture.  I never had time to recover.  So I held my breath and took the plunge:  part time nights. Between the shift differential and being able to pick up shifts here and there now I knew it could financially work... if my morning self would let it. 

Amazingly, it hasn't been a problem so far at all. You can do anything for a night or two. I work my weekend nights together and then split off the other two days during the pay period.  So far it's worked beautifully. I never even really feel like I'm up all night even though I see the clock a million times throughout the night.  And perversely, I like seeing the sun come up from this side of things. Not to mention, I've finally found the cure for my insomnia:  run and has hard and as fast as you can and then crash.

It's a win-win.